Before kick off, the general opinion seemed that Italy were going to walk this game, with the Netherlands missing key players due to injury, such as Mario Melchiot, Ryan Babel and Arjen Robben, with Robin Van Persie just passing a very late fitness test.
In the first couple of minutes, both teams seemed very eager to make a good start, especially after France’s shock draw against Romania. After around five minutes Holland started to dominate the game, putting Italy’s’ defense under immense pressure, and it was obvious Italy were missing their usual captain, Fabio Cannovaro.
After twenty minutes, Italy conceded a corner. As the ball flew in, Buffon reached out and punched the ball, landing at Sneijder’s feet. He then whacked the ball and Ruud Van Nistelrooy converted it into the bottom corner. Van Nistelrooy was quite far offside, and Italian players were understandably appalled, Luca Toni getting booked for his arguments.
Italy soon found their feet though, forcing the Dutch back into their own half where they conceded a silly corner. The ball came across and Van Bronckhorst blocked off the line, before running the whole length of the field before making a perfect cross, straight to Dirk Kuyt who headed back into the six yard box for Wesley Sneijder to volley past Buffon.
Just minutes later, Dirk Kuyt played a perfect through ball to Van Nistelrooy, who took it round the Italian goalie but appeared to be caught. Van Nistelrooy stayed up (just about) and crosses the ball back into the middle to no avail, but if he had gone down it would have undoubtedly been a penalty. The Netherlands go into the changing rooms well on top, and Italy didn’t look like coming back from two goals down.
The second half wasn’t any less exciting. Italy started well, but once again Holland started to take control, passing the ball around and playing some extremely good football. There was almost nothing to choose between the two teams, until Pirlo took a curling free kick from the edge of the area which Edwin Van Der Sar superbly saved, before throwing it up the field, for new substitute Robin Van Persie to thread the ball through to Dirk Kuyt who shot from the edge of the box with Buffon making a fantastic save. The Liverpool striker then crossed the ball back in and Van Bronckhorst had an easy header to make it three nil.
After that there really was no way back for Italy, although they had a couple of opportunities that would have gone their way on another day, they failed to score.
It was definitely the most entertaining match of Euro 2008 so far, with fluent football from both sides and some amazing team goals, but it is the Netherlands that came out on top, and, judging by this performance, they certainly have the ability to win the competition.
I just heard the good news, Arsene Wenger will be one of the analysts in Aljazeera Sports Channel’s Euro 2008 coverage. I heard that some other big names might be there too, but for now this is the biggest name that I heard so far, it will be very interesting in hearing his say on the matches. And yet again Aljazeera Sports keeps surprising us. From now on I will expect anything, the sky is the limit.
Barcelona is a troubled club now, so I expect we will be hearing many many news about many players moving from and to it. It is believed that a big number of players will most probably transfer from Barcelona this summer, after hearing that Ronaldinho and Zambrotta are moving to AC Milan and also that Thierry Henry will go back to the English Premier League, maybe going back to Arsenal, now it is the turn for some Eto’o rumors.
Ofcourse now we know that the AC Milan bid for Ronaldinho has failed, but when the news surfaced at first the thing seemed as a done deal.
Few hours after the big Barca failure in front of Real Madrid 4-1 we heard some news that Eto’o might transfer to Tottenham, then the news that maybe he will be exchanged with Adebayor, so he will go to Arsenal and Adebayor goes to Barcelona. I really really doubt that happening, but this latest news of him going to Inter Milan seems more believable.
The reports say that Inter Milan is preparing a 40 million Euros bid to capture him this summer, Inter Milan now is also trying to get Hleb, I guess that is a done deal, but Moratti now is also trying to get Ronaldinho. Moratti always likes to get big players, but will he be able to lure them to Inter Milan, he just failed getting Gerard after his 25 Million pounds bid was turned down by Liverpool.
Well, if Eto’o does come to Inter Milan that means Ibrahimovic will leave, so is it really worth it, can Ibra and Eto’o play side by side?? Well, actually yes why not, I can totally see them playing side by side, but it is too good to be true, Inter needs to be extra ready for the champions league next season, Ibrahimovic besides Eto’o makes a great attack. I know that some people will start shouting that maybe their style of play wont make them click upfront. Actually what does really matter now for Inter Milan is WHO IS THEIR MANAGER?? SHOULDNT THE MANAGER BE THE PERSON ASKING FOR PLAYERS? IS MANCINI IN OR OUT ?!!?!?!
It is sort of a stretch that ten players are set to leave Barca in the summer, but some reports lately are saying that Barcelona are going to go through major rebuilding of the club this summer. It is sort of clear now that Frank Rijkaard is leaving and Mourinho is taking over.
Barcelona is rumored to sell Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Deco, Lilian Thuram, Edmilson, Rafa Márquez, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Gianluca Zambrotta, Santi Ezquerro and Sylvinho. Some Other rumors also state that Etoo might head to Tottenham.
It does seem a but too much, but I think Barcelona should do something as big as this to be able to compete next season. Although as a Real Madrid fan I wish they stay clueless the same way they are.
Now on the other hand, Barcelona’s shopping list is huge, they have around 40 names to choose from. They must be waiting for Mourinho to take over and choose.
The rumored names on Barca’s Shopping list are as follows:
Defense: Daniel Alves (Sevilla), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Lucio (Bayern Munich), Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo La Coruna) and Ezequiel Garay (Racing Santander)
Midfield: Seydou Keita and Christian Poulsen (Sevilla), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
Attack: Karim Benzema (Lyon) and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Ajax)
Borussia Dortmund announced today that the deal to sign Jens Lehmann this winter collapsed after the player decided he rather stay with Arsenal. Lehmann’s contract with Arsenal expires in the summer, and Wenger have said earlier that he wont stand in the goalkeeper’s way to return to Germany, but it seems Lehmann believe he can regain his position and the trust of Arsene Wenger.
This is what he had to say today: “Although it would have been a very attractive challenge to play for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga once again, I have decided against taking this step due to personal reasons, I am sorry, particularly to disappoint the people responsible at Borussia Dortmund, who have tried very professionally to convince me to move and gave me sufficient time for consideration.”
Ofcourse the Germany coach Joachim Low and team manager Oliver Bierhoff backed Lehmann’s choice. Even Wenger stated today that he is happy Lehmann is staying and that he will be included in the next match against Birmingham. He said: “Lehmann will be on the bench, the indication I can give is that I am happy if he stays because he is an important player in the squad, like Gilberto also. We have such a young squad that these players have a big weight in the dressing room and a big input in the team. I am happy if they stay.”
Although am happy he is staying, but I find his decision a bit odd, he knows Almunia is number one now and it would take more than a couple of bad performances by Almunia to make Lehmann first choice again, what is he depending on, that Almunia is injured?? On the second hand, his national team manager already informed him only players who play regularly with their clubs will be considered to represent Germany in Euro 2008!
As much as I hate Internet Explorer, and nowadays I don’t even use it at all, but I know that some people still prefer using it, ofcourse I always try to convince them to move to real safe clean browsers such as Firefox and Opera. But to those who still use IE7, here is something that will make your life easier.
IE7Pro 2.0 is an add-on for IE7, it gives IE7 the features every web surfer needs, such as mouse gestures, Ad Blocker, Flash blocker, Tab manager and Greasemonkey like user scripts platform. And now the one feature that always was missing from all IE versions, a proper download manager that allows you to pause and resume your downloads.
The new download manager stays open even after closing IE7 windows, it stays minimized in tray, there is an option to automatically close the download manager after it finishes downloading.
Fabio Capello arrived to London yesterday and held talks with the English FA. The FA communication director have described the talks as positive and without any problems. The discussions lasted for 3 hours where after Capello traveled back to Milan and left his lawyers to finalize the deal. It is being said that Capello will be getting £4.5 Million per year where the contract will mostly last til the end of the World Cup 2010.
Capello said yesterday that he thinks the problem with England players is mostly psychological. He is amazed how England was not able to qualify to Euro 2008 and he thinks the players have a mental block!
Here what he had to say : "There is tremendous difference in the attitude they show from one game to the next. How can players of the level of Beckham or Owen have performances so different when they play for their national team?" questioned Capello. “It’s clear the shirt is very heavy even for those great champions."
"It’s clear there is a mental block, otherwise how can you explain their elimination from Euro 2008? We managers ask ourselves how can England, with the players they have, not qualify for the 2008 European Championships? The English team, much like the Spanish team, wins very little despite having some very good players."
"I’ve watched some of the games of the English, in the match against Russia in Moscow they played defensively. They sat right outside their own 18-yard box for 90 minutes despite having the advantage after taking a 1-0 lead in the first half. Against Croatia at Wembley they were all playing up front. They lost 2-3 when a draw at home would have been enough for them to qualify.”
In my opinion Capello is better than Maurinho for England, and I know he will make huge changes to the squad, and some of those might not be so happily accepted by England fans, but that’s how he works. I wont be surprised if he does not choose Beckham for example, I wont be amazed if he does not choose to keep Terry as captain. Change is on the way, is it good change? bad change? who know, but you will see a totally different England team.
The first match Capello will play will be a home game played in Wembley stadium against Switzerland in Feb. 2008.
Since the controversial resignation of Jose Maurinho, Drogba was in a bad mood. He criticized the club and the management several times. But later the team went on to perform well and he scored some goals and everybody thought the situation is resolved.
Apparently no, Chelsea is angry with Drogba because he has chose to represent Ivory Coast in the Olympic team next summer which will this winter between Jan and Feb of 2008. Which makes him unavailable for chelsea in the Pre-Season and the start of the Premier League. Add to this him not being available this winter for around 5 weeks because of the African Cup.Here comes Real Madrid stepping in with $30 million to get the player as an option for Ruud van Nistelrooy, especially being prone to injury lately.
In my opinion Drogba is not the right choice, seeing how Schuster play he wont fit and it will take him time and effort to fit in, which could be costly in results for Real Madrid. Drogba will just disrupt the squad which itself is not that stable anyway.
I can imagine Drogba playing for teams such as Manchester United, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Valencia.
Al Ahly rock in the backline was loaned to Alseleya Club in Qatar, the defender will be playing for them from January 2008 to the end of the season. Although Al-Ahly havent announced any information on the price, but it has been known that the club offered 180 thousand dollars to loan the player.
To be honest as an Ahly fan i just don’t understand what the board is trying to achieve this season, or actually are they trying to achieve anything. Selling Mohammed Shawqy earlier this season to Middlesbrough in the english league and now loaning Gom3a to Alseleyea. These are big mistakes everybody knows that Al-Ahly has suffered from selling their star defensive midfielder and now loaning their only real rock in the backline.
My Advice to Al-Ahly board is one thing, go buy players, we need at least 3 new players and you know it, we need a striker and a defensive midfielder and an attacking midfielder. Abu treka had enough already, the man is overloaded, we always expect him to be 100% ready in each and every freakin match. He is not a machine you know he is a human and the day will come when he just wont be able to take it anymore. And that day is not at all far.
Al-Ahly board, spend from some of the profits you got, you have the money, stop being greedy and buy new player before its too late.
As usual Mancini just cant hold a score to the end of the match, this is just him, this isn’t the first time and wont be the last, Inter Milan played well during most of the match but Juventus was a powerful rival, they caused Inter Milan some trouble from time to time, and to be honest they deserved a draw, but that’s because our man here is so eager to keep the score 1-0 he just quickly go to defend where he gives the opposition the chance to slip through the lines and score. Se what he said after the match “We should have been more clinical, with a Juve that will never give up. It will serve as a lesson.” Believe me Mancini this isn’t your first lesson, this is so typical of you and your tactics, please try to learn for once in your life.
Anyway Inter Milan is still top of the table but you know even if we won the league a match between Juve and Inter just has a different taste. Its as if you are playing in a separate cup of something.
Before kick off, the general opinion seemed that Italy were going to walk this game, with the Netherlands missing key players due to injury, such as Mario Melchiot, Ryan Babel and Arjen Robben, with Robin Van Persie just passing a very late fitness test.
I just heard the good news, Arsene Wenger will be one of the analysts in Aljazeera Sports Channel’s Euro 2008 coverage. I heard that some other big names might be there too, but for now this is the biggest name that I heard so far, it will be very interesting in hearing his say on the matches. And yet again Aljazeera Sports keeps surprising us. From now on I will expect anything, the sky is the limit.
Barcelona is a troubled club now, so I expect we will be hearing many many news about many players moving from and to it. It is believed that a big number of players will most probably transfer from Barcelona this summer, after hearing that Ronaldinho and Zambrotta are moving to AC Milan and also that Thierry Henry will go back to the English Premier League, maybe going back to Arsenal, now it is the turn for some Eto’o rumors.
Well, if Eto’o does come to Inter Milan that means Ibrahimovic will leave, so is it really worth it, can Ibra and Eto’o play side by side?? Well, actually yes why not, I can totally see them playing side by side, but it is too good to be true, Inter needs to be extra ready for the champions league next season, Ibrahimovic besides Eto’o makes a great attack. I know that some people will start shouting that maybe their style of play wont make them click upfront. Actually what does really matter now for Inter Milan is WHO IS THEIR MANAGER?? SHOULDNT THE MANAGER BE THE PERSON ASKING FOR PLAYERS? IS MANCINI IN OR OUT ?!!?!?!
It is sort of a stretch that ten players are set to leave Barca in the summer, but some reports lately are saying that Barcelona are going to go through major rebuilding of the club this summer. It is sort of clear now that Frank Rijkaard is leaving and Mourinho is taking over.
It does seem a but too much, but I think Barcelona should do something as big as this to be able to compete next season. Although as a Real Madrid fan I wish they stay clueless the same way they are.
Borussia Dortmund announced today that the deal to sign Jens Lehmann this winter collapsed after the player decided he rather stay with Arsenal. Lehmann’s contract with Arsenal expires in the summer, and Wenger have said earlier that he wont stand in the goalkeeper’s way to return to Germany, but it seems Lehmann believe he can regain his position and the trust of Arsene Wenger.
Fabio Capello arrived to London yesterday and held talks with the English FA. The FA communication director have described the talks as positive and without any problems. The discussions lasted for 3 hours where after Capello traveled back to Milan and left his lawyers to finalize the deal. It is being said that Capello will be getting £4.5 Million per year where the contract will mostly last til the end of the World Cup 2010.
Since the controversial resignation of Jose Maurinho, Drogba was in a bad mood. He criticized the club and the management several times. But later the team went on to perform well and he scored some goals and everybody thought the situation is resolved.
Al Ahly rock in the backline was loaned to Alseleya Club in Qatar, the defender will be playing for them from January 2008 to the end of the season. Although Al-Ahly havent announced any information on the price, but it has been known that the club offered 180 thousand dollars to loan the player.
As usual Mancini just cant hold a score to the end of the match, this is just him, this isn’t the first time and wont be the last, Inter Milan played well during most of the match but Juventus was a powerful rival, they caused Inter Milan some trouble from time to time, and to be honest they deserved a draw, but that’s because our man here is so eager to keep the score 1-0 he just quickly go to defend where he gives the opposition the chance to slip through the lines and score. Se what he said after the match “We should have been more clinical, with a Juve that will never give up. It will serve as a lesson.” Believe me Mancini this isn’t your first lesson, this is so typical of you and your tactics, please try to learn for once in your life.